It’s been a busy old summer! Culture House activity ramped up in May when we hosted some brilliant national touring artists as part of Our Future Starts Here in Cleethorpes.
We’ve previously hosted this programme in Grimsby, when we’ve connected local people and visitors to artworks such as Luke Jerram’s Gaia and Joli Vynn’s centre-piece ‘Timeless’.
Our Future Starts here attempts to explore issues of our time including environmental sustainability through an innovative arts and culture programme, bringing inspiring content from national performers. This year’s Cleethorpes programme included Bamboo by No Fit State Circus. It was amazing to see this work in our area, with many of the audience telling us they’d ‘never see anything like it’.
Swiftly following was Everybody Loves the Sunshine, the area’s newest music festival, bringing diverse sounds to an open-air stage in Cleethorpes. More than 500 attended and experienced music from bands they had not previously heard of, resulting in comments like “so good to have this in our own backyard”, “what a line-up” and “we all loved it”. (This will be back again next year – keep an eye out on our What’s On and follow our socials on Facebook and Insta @theculturehousegy )
Then we were straight on to Picnic in the Park – five events every Sunday in August celebrating local talent while welcoming guest artists. A great combination! We had such good feedback with us also publicly celebrating our 15th birthday at the final picnic, when the New York Brass Band (from York) really brought the joy and connection (much needed at this divided time). We were delighted to hear comments like: “thank you for bringing people together” and “it’s been wonderful”. We loved it too!
On the final straight, we then hosted Freedom on Tour, a spin off of Freedom Festival Hull, when we hosted four brilliant international companies, again in Cleethorpes – outside the Meridian Craft Units – the first time this space had been used in this way.
Audiences enjoyed quality, quirky and entertaining shows, again with many saying they’d “never seen anything like it” and that the shows were “really good”.
Just stopping for a second to catch our breath, we then hosted a ‘Play Day’ in St James’ Square, just before the kids went back to school. Families and kids loved circus skills workshops and giant bubbles, as well as immersive story-telling about Grimsby’s history and lovely live background music from Rob Bywater. The event just had a lovely little chilled vibe and enlivened the square for a day – again, this is due to return next year!
We’re now looking forward to a few upcoming intimate live events in The Living Room while working on plans and fundraising for next year.
